Greenfield Team Spotlight:
2020 learnings & silver linings
Featuring Lindsey Keenan
Educational Services Team - Bay Area, California
Photo from https://blog.ticketmaster.com/avoid-buying-counterfeit-broadway-theater-tickets/
1. Can you tell us what a day in the life of Lindsey at Greenfield Learning is like?
Much of my day consists of meeting with administrators, leading or moderating professional development sessions, and collaborating with colleagues. My “down time” consists of reaching out or responding to administrators and teachers, planning for upcoming professional development sessions, and furthering my own professional development in supporting teachers and students through ed-tech.
2. What are three things most of the Greenfield team won't know about you?
Education was not my first career path. I have a Master’s Degree in Psychology and completed half of my clinical hours to become a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. I ultimately decided it was not the best fit for me. I also founded and ran my own wedding planning business, called “Meant to Be,” for a couple of years before deciding to go back to school to get my teaching credential.
If I could, I would spend every weekend in a theater watching musicals. I have a long list of shows I still want to see, have seen some of my favorites multiple times (the most is 4x for one show), and have recently started a collection of framed playbills. My dream is to go to NYC and see a bunch of shows on Broadway!
I enjoy taking vacations and traveling, even though I do not get to go very often. I love Europe and have been fortunate enough to visit England, France, Spain, Italy, Montenegro, and Greece. The last trip my husband and I took was three years ago, so a vacation is long overdue! We have been adding to our bucket list of places to visit once it's safe to travel again.
3. Drawing from all your experiences in education, what are going to be some "tools in your back pocket" you will carry with you for the work that you do at Greenfield?
My goal is to always remember what it is like to be in the classroom. Teachers have a lot on their plates that non-teachers do not always understand, especially during the pandemic. Remembering my overall experience as a teacher will help me build relationships and provide the best support that I can as they implement our educational programs in their classrooms.
Photo from https://www.notsowimpyteacher.com/2020/03/how-to-use-zoom-with-your-class.html
4. Do you have a funny story to share about a technical snafu that happened with the shift to total remote-working?
At the beginning of the pandemic, I was still teaching kindergarten, and was just issued a new district-issued laptop to replace one that was not working very well. The first time I used the laptop to host a Zoom session for eight eager 5-year olds was a complete disaster! The laptop automatically muted the speakers and microphone anytime one of us tried to speak. I had to go into the computer settings to turn them back on every single time. It was very frustrating and my poor students were so confused, but patient. Luckily, I was able to laugh it off because I had one of my fabulous para-professionals on the call with me. She was able to manage the conversation and let me know when they could not hear me. I found out later that this was a known issue between the specific model of laptop and Zoom, and that the issue was un-fixable. I used my personal computer for Zoom calls for the remainder of the school year to avoid the issue.
Photo from https://schurigcenter.org/self-care-challenge/
5. What have you learned about yourself as you've maneuvered the challenges of work and life in a pandemic?
After being in the classroom and keeping up with kindergarteners the last several years, I learned that I actually enjoy working from home. Even if I have a busy day scheduled, it feels so much calmer and manageable in the comfort of my own home. However, I have discovered that interacting with my colleagues was my main social outlet. I have to consciously put more effort into reaching out to others both professionally and socially.
6. What are some of your aspirations for the educators and students you will be helping for the rest of this school year?
My hope is that they can all find a way to take care of themselves and learn to let some things go. This school year is unlike any other, and we are all much more stressed than usual! No matter how hard we may try, some things may just not go well this year. We have to accept that some ideas won’t work out the way we planned, but we can learn what part did work and move on to the next idea. Additionally, teachers tend to forget to take care of themselves when they are so focused on being there for their students. We have to remember that we are a much better support system for others when we are also making time for our own well-being.
We hope you enjoyed Lindsey’s interview as much as we did! To read more of this Team Spotlight interview series, navigate back to: the Team Spotlight 2020 Learnings & Silver Linings main page.
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